


The Open Road

by MercurialComet



Series: That one universe where Beau got a babysitter worse than her [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 13:17:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13927890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercurialComet/pseuds/MercurialComet
Summary: Argus used to travel along the roads. It was never like this though.





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all, this is gonna be a project that has me trying to keep up with the liveshows, so, you're gonna get a lot of content as I frantically rush to keep up.  
> That being said, I just started spring break, so I have a lot more time to write now.

Argus is both concerned and excited about traveling again. On the one hand, he gets to relive his adventures before he went to live with the Order of the Cobalt Soul. 

 

On the other hand- “Would you join the stagecoach robbery?”

 

_ I’m gonna lose all my hair before I’m 40. _ Argus thought as he looked on as the group was talking through the semantics of robbing a stagecoach.

 

“Did you hijack a cart?” Jester inquires of Nott and Caleb.

 

“No,” the goblin girl sighs, “we were more small-time thieves. We wouldn’t, uh, hijack moving caravans. Usually we’d wait till they’re parked somewhere and then just go sneak on and steal something out of the back.”

 

“Mostly whatever we can walk away with.” Caleb explains. Beau nods respectfully.

 

“The nature with moving carts of that big a family is that they tend to prep.” Argus looks at her as she’s explaining the logic behind it. “You don’t know what kind of people or weapons they have with them.”

 

“Always go for a sure thing.” Caleb adds on.

 

_ How do all of these people also know how to rob someone blind?  _

 

* * *

Argus woke up early, getting his things ready and eating some rations he had stowed away in one bag. As he finished and was casually changing out his shirt, a voice spoke up from the party.

 

“So, the scales aren’t just on the face, are they?” Molly smiles as they lift themselves up, keeping their voice low enough not to wake the others. Argus freezes, his new shirt still in his hands, the silver scales that decorate his back in patterns and run down his arms and legs clearly visible against his dark skin.

 

“N- No, they aren’t.”  _ Don’t stutter you idiot, they’re going to think something’s up. _

 

“Where did you get them from?” Molly questioned, red, pupiless eyes making contact with Argus’ own brown and silver ones. “I thought you were just another human.”

 

“I am. It’s just…”

 

“I’m waiting.”

 

“I’m half dragonborn.” Argus pulls on his shirt, and fixes his gloves, covering up the evidence as well as he can without his cloak. Molly gives him a look as they pull on their own shirt and that fancy coat they have.

 

“You twitch your right hand when you lie.” They say before turning around and waking up the rest of the party.

 

Argus, fixing the cloak of his hood to make sure it doesn’t fall off, doesn’t get that much time to reflect on what the tiefling meant by that before Fjord jolts himself awake and vomits up water.

 

* * *

Walking into Alfield is tiring. Argus is exhausted, and it seems like Nott, Jester, and Caleb are as well as the group makes it into the village. However, none of that matters now because the village is actually on fire and the party is on alert.

 

There are rushing families running past them that give very little information, and a human guy falls down with an arrow in the back and is eaten, savagely. 

 

Nott seems to recognize them. “I think they’re- I don’t know what they’re called; We fought one before!” She shrieks, Caleb nodding alongside her. 

 

“Do you know how to kill them?”

 

“You just hurt them until they die!” The monster that was eating the body drags it back, running into the city. Looking around their vicinity, there aren’t anymore of those monsters, but Crown Guards are running towards the fire and chaos.

 

The party ditches the cart, running into the heart of the city, closer to the fire. Pushing past the buildings, they noticed the injured guards being tended to while others keep watch. A very brief conversation gives them a bounty: 30 gold a gnoll ear. It sounds like heaven to Argus, and he follows Beau to look around the wall. 

 

Nott and Fjord start talking, Nott pulling out a piece of fleece and holding her hand out, orchestrating a copy of the guard who gave them the bounty is dashing across the courtyard. A strange gnoll runs up and slashes at it, and Molly’s face lights up with an air of recognition, their sword a bright white and dripping a small amount of blood.

 

As Argus reaches into his pack and pulls out he crowbar, he’s aware of many things around him. He notices Caleb starting to blink in and out of existence around the group and Fjord’s armor glowing a light blue as ice forms around it. Molly’s whispering something in a foreign language and slicing their other sword against the back of their neck, drawing a tiny bit of blood and having the second blade glow white as Jester claps her hands together and summons a divine-

 

_ Lollipop? _

 

Jester’s spiritual weapon appears above the gnoll that Molly viciously mocked and swings at the creature, knocking all of it’s bones across the ground and scattering everywhere. Nott and a second Jester run towards an alleyway. Beau and Argus dash towards a window, Beau giving him a rundown on what she sees as she peeks through the window.

 

“Hey, you want to take these guys? You ready for this?” She whispers excitedly to Argus and Nott, the goblin just appearing by their sides. Nott sputters a bit before she just starts drinking from her flask. “Get ready. I want them to come through this window.” After she speaks, she whistles, and although it’s a decent one, it doesn't seem to get any attention.

 

Not even fazed by it, she jumps in and Argus blinks for a second or two before he follows, dashing past her as she settles into a defensive stance and swinging his crowbar at the closest gnoll he can reach, striking it across the head and leaving a good sized bruise on it.

 

The shock of the two monks showing up is what really saves the two monks, most of the arrows knocked in crossbows firing at Beau, the majority hitting the door frame around her, but one she catches and throws back at the gnoll in front of her, sinking the bolt into its chest. A bigger gnoll picks up a spear and tries to thrust it at the two, Argus letting it take a glancing, but harmless blow as it scrapes across his back, and Beau kicking it away from her as she grabs another gnoll and pulls it in front of her, splintering an arrow that came firing from a random angle. 

 

Argus hears a loud growl off in the distance, and he doesn’t even feel the swipe of the gnoll claws on his arm, quickly disarming the gnoll that decided to try and attack Beau, stripping away it’s crossbow as it swiped at her. As he does so, he could’ve sworn he heard Nott’s voice yell out, “This is fine!” from the currently on-fire floor above him. His thoughts were quickly confirmed by the sound of beams cracking above them as she tries her best to get to the other side of that room with as little fire damage as possible.

 

That brings a small smile full of worry and pride to his face that gets wiped away as a skeletal gnoll comes up and bites Beau on the forearm while slicing him in the chest with its claws, both of them grunting in pain. Beau shrugs off the skeleton and goes to rip out a bolt that Nott had fired in the room and stab a gnoll, but she has to stop her momentum as the doorway gets blocked for her. Frustrated she attempts to elbow the skeleton, leaving no effect on the gnoll.

 

Argus attempts to lay waste to the inside, with the two gnolls that didn’t leave with the cart. He strikes the same gnoll across the head with his crowbar, using the momentum to try and punch it with his off hand, the punch knocking the gnoll right out, and the momentum carrying him into the second gnoll, hitting it and causing it to bleed heavily as his glove rips off, revealing the scales that adorn his hand, suddenly sharper and dripping with the gnoll’s blood.

 

After he strikes, the gnoll swipes back, missing as the monk ducks under its arm. There’s another loud growl and the gnoll takes a second swing, again hitting Argus in the chest and wounding him heavily. 

At this point, Argus isn’t really paying attention to anything else besides this gnoll in front of him, and he swings his crowbar at it again, following it up with a punch using the ungloved hand. Both connect, the crowbar knocking it off balance, and the punch knocking it out, it crumbling to the ground beneath it.

 

The adrenaline starts to slowly wean from him as he first cuts the ears off the gnolls, makeing his way out of the house through a window, and noticing all of the action he had missed in the street: Molly jumping over an arrow fired at them, Fjord getting struck by a glaive as he fires bolts of magic that miss his assailant, the guard that gave them the bounty striking and felling a skeletal gnoll, surprising Jester enough to fall off the wall.

 

As he makes his way to the cart, he realized that Beau also made her way outside of the building, striking a gnoll that was standing next to one that just suddenly burst out into this hideous laughter. The gnoll tries to run away and Beau slams her fist down on the top of it’s head, the gnoll collapsing onto the ground in a heap.

 

Argus slows down as the cart becomes obscured by the smoke, ash, and flames blocking it as it makes its way out. Nott blows past him, dashing into the cloud of dust, and by instinct he dashes in too, not noticing that Molly was behind him, screaming “Now’s not the time!” 

 

In the distance, he hears Fjord shout, “Nott, Argus, get back here!”

 

The goblin girl looks confused. “What?”

 

“Let them go!” Argus is confused too, too much blood having left his system for him to think straight. Nott suddenly gets taken out by an arrow, Argus flinched at the speed of it. Turning around to look directly at the gnoll leader, he watches as a second arrow strikes him in the gut, and his sight goes black as he passes into unconsciousness.


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winding down from the battle, a few clues are dropped and more than one member of the party is suspicious of Argus' heritage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are enjoying these fics  
> 

Argus woke up to Jester worryingly holding a bandage against his stomach and the sharp pain of divine magic in his body fading away. “Oh! He’s awake!” She called out, bringing a few of the others closer to him, the pain of his wounds hitting him full force, and causing him to reel a slight bit, closing his eyes to block out all the information his brain was getting.

 

“That’s good.” Caleb’s voice seems to rest at Argus’ right, and if Argus had to guess, he’d say that the man was a few feet away. “Why didn’t your magic work?”

 

“I don’t know.” There’s a rustling motion as Jester shrugs. “It usually doesn’t work on- No, maybe I just didn’t do the spell correctly, I am a bit tired.” Argus opened his eyes and he was met with a wink from Jester as she bandaged him up quickly and got him on his feet, his arm around Molly for support.

 

“You alright there, babysitter?” Beau asked.

 

“I’m-” he coughed, not a harsh cough, but a cough that dislodged the ash from his throat. “I’m good. I’ll need to lay down for a bit, but I’m good.”

 

“Oh.” Beau looked awkward as she gave him a thumbs up. He smiled back at her, taking a step and wincing as his gut screamed in pain, Molly holding him upright as his knees buckled.

 

“Yeah, you’re gonna wait until Fjord comes back with the cart.” They looked over their shoulder, obviously scanning for signs of the warlock and failing to see him. “How long does it take to get a cart through here?”

 

“There is a lot of ash and smoke.” Caleb noticed, taking the lead of the group with Nott in his hands. “Maybe the horses are too spooked.”

 

Beau gives Argus a glance. “You think you can make it back to the cart?”

 

“Ye-” Jester interrupts him by picking him up bridal style.

 

“As your cleric, I'm forcing you to stay off your feet!” She says as she starts walking forward. 

 

“Um-” Argus is pretty confused, and his current state of health isn't helping much. “Thanks?”

 

“No problem! Although-” she ducks down and whispers in his ear. “It is weird that my magic didn’t work on you. The Traveler said that could only happen if the thing wasn't actually alive, and you clearly are.”

 

“Yeah.” He coughs. “Obviously.”

 

Jester smiles. “Obviously.” Her attention turned to Argus’ hand, the scales in full view without the glove to cover them. “You have really pretty scales.”

 

“Half-dragonborn.” His right hand twitches, the light reflecting off the scales as they move.

 

“Oh? I’ve never heard of that before. How does it happen?”

 

“Father was a dragonborn, mother was a half-elf.” Argus’ eyes fluttered as he started to get tired.

 

Her head tilts. “But you’re half-human.” 

 

His eyes widen.  _ Shit, she’s getting onto me. _ “Did I say half-elf? I meant human.” 

 

“Oh.” She smiled. “I believe you.” She calmly walked up to the cart and put the monk in it. “Now take a break, have a pastry from my bag.” She giggles. “I’ll check up on you in a bit.” She dashed away, presumably to help the rest of the party with getting themselves back on the road and talking to the Crown Guards. With the cart still motionless after some and no one else coming inside, Argus took a pastry and fell asleep to the muted hum of the night air.


End file.
